How to talk to your family about medical cannabis

The decision to adopt cannabis as a treatment option is, like most significant changes in life, very personal. Whether you’ve decided to incorporate medical cannabis into your routine to treat chronic pain, sleep issues, cancer symptoms or social anxiety, you’ve likely done so primarily for one reason: to feel better.

You may, however, feel the need to discuss your choice with loved ones. Because most big decisions in life are as personal as they are familial, discussing your treatment plan with the people in your support network can be an important means of building empathy for, and understanding of, your choice.

Be Open and Honest

There are few threats more insidious than deception. A quiet lie under the mat of a relationship is a shaky roof overhead, that leaks when it rains. In cannabis, as in life, the best policy is honesty.

Confronted with the truth of your choice and the results of your treatment, you will find that most friends and family members will understand, and even support, your decision. Some may even have more knowledge of the topic than you could have ever imagined! And for those who refuse to see it your way, simply remind them of the positive results you’ve experienced.

Help Inform and Educate

Cannabis is the basis for a new, and complex, conversation. From product types and proper dosing, to strain selection and delivery methods, the particulars of medical cannabis are not easy to understand. As someone who now holds some of the answers to the many questions people have about treatment, you can help to inform friends and family. Health Canada figures show a 32-percent increase in the number of Canadians using medical cannabis since 2016. In future, as recreational cannabis reform becomes a reality, still more people will look to understand and adopt medical cannabis. You can now help make that choice a more informed one!

Clear Smoke from the Air

When many people think of cannabis, they think fire and smoke – joints, pipes and bongs. Speaking with your friends and family members about your choice to use medical cannabis, you may find that some are still of the mindset that this is the reality. Again here, you have an opportunity to enlighten those who may only be set against the topic for a lack of knowledge about the plant.

If you’re preparing to discuss your decision with loved ones, be certain to remind them that cannabis needn’t, necessarily, be smoked. In addition to vaporizers, which eliminate about 90 percent of the impurities that come from combustion, medical cannabis can also be consumed in tinctures, topicals, oils and edibles. To a family member unfamiliar with that fact, it may be the difference between an abrupt end, or an exciting start, to a new conversation.

Thank you!

Two years ago, when Dan Goulet was going up the stairs in his Toronto apartment, he slipped and smacked his head sharp against the steps. Then when he got up, he quickly blacked out and struck his head again on the steps. He was later diagnosed with a concussion.

Lynn Wells only nibbles on a cannabis brownie monthly(,) but she’s one of many Canadian seniors clamouring to a plant they tried decades ago and have now returned to in light of some aches, pains and other conditions.

Robust is one way to define the current breadth of research that involves the cannabis and its
chemical parts. Across the planet – namely in states and countries where medical cannabis is
permitted – scientists are becoming increasingly invested in discovering the full potential of the
cannabis plant. To date, those studies have focussed tightly on the isolating and use of particular
cannabinoids, and the prospect that isolated cannabis molecules may hold the key to any number
of conditions. With these advancements, researchers have been able to add significant scientific
knowledge, data and innovation to the medical cannabis discussion.

The endocannabinoid system is found in all vertebrate animals and even some invertebrates are reported to have an ECS. According to some reports, the number of endocannabinoid receptors in the human body is greater than all of the other neuromodulatory systems combined, including serotonin and dopamine. In other words, the endocannabinoid system is critically important to maintaining health and homeostasis.

For two particular reasons, there are few topics being explored in the cannabis space more
exhilarating than the endocannabinoid system. First, for a lack of research in the area, medical
schools have almost exclusively omitted the system from the curriculum. Second, as drug
policies have evolved, researchers have been allowed to study the system, and its inherent
connection to cannabinoids found in the cannabis plant.

While cannabis has been used for thousands of yards as a therapeutic agent, its commercial
viability has only taken shape in the last century. Contemporary treatment is now characterized
by a plethora of products in a variety of concentrations, traditional cannabis therapy revolved
around one product: tinctures.

As medical cannabis has gained acceptance as a viable treatment option over the past two decades,
so too has the list of symptoms the plant has been shown to help grown. No longer is the plant merely
used to treat chronic pain or extreme conditions like HIV/AIDS, it now complements nearly every
therapy option available.

When discussing cannabis, it is important to remember that the line between science and folklore
can at times be fickle. In the context of cannabis as a treatment, for instance, there is only one
direct scientific source (THC found in ashes) that cannabis was used as a medicine, around 400
AD.

As a flurry of new products have flooded the budding cannabis market in recent years, so too have those developments come to represent a wealth of hope for medical patients, or anyone
looking for an alternative therapy. Where, traditionally, cannabis was consumed by inhalation – combusting flowers in a joint or pipe – the contemporary cannabis discussion is one
characterized by advancement and sophistication.

In the simplest of terms, cannabinoids are the chemical compounds that lend cannabis its medical
and recreational characteristics. These chemicals interact with the body’s cells when consumed
to produce a range of therapeutic effects. Found in the plant’s trichomes, more commonly known
as crystals, cannabinoids are, in essence, the heart and soul of the cannabis plant.

Insomnia, sleep apnea and restless leg syndrome are but a few of the ills that fall under the
category of sleep condition. Though not quick to receive much attention from the healthcare
community, the threat associated with sleep conditions – from obesity to cardiovascular disease –
is stark.

December brings with it a flurry of things to be grateful for: the first snowfalls, the holiday season, time with family and friends, and a reprieve from the hustle and bustle that characterizes most every other month of the year. But for people who suffer from seasonal affective disorder, December can also mean the beginning of an annual depression that starts when winter first flexes its icy grip on the human psyche.

Can cannabis cure cancer? To date, there is no scientific evidence to back the theory that
cannabis kills cancer cells. In fact, most responsible cannabis professionals – leery of a culture of
misinformation – will caution patients to ignore that claim.

There are few experts, if any, on the research and development side of the cannabis conversation that deny the holistic efficacy of THC. Despite there being a common misperception that the most popular and notorious of all the cannabinoids in the cannabis plant is only responsible for a good time, there is a wealth of scientific data that refutes this assertion. In fact, insiders have known – long before medical cannabis became an acceptable adjunct treatment option – that THC has profound therapeutic benefits.

The list of sophisticated new cannabis products lining product shelves of this new space is extensive, and impressive. More often than not, these products serve as a responsible introduction to medical cannabis. Where pipes and bongs have a tendency to lend stereotype to any conversation of cannabis therapy, new delivery methods like oils, edibles and topicals tend to have exactly the opposite effect.

Cannabis treatment is a moot therapy option without a firm grasp on how to dose. This very fact has perhaps been best illustrated by the fact the medical community, until recently, has shied away from throwing full support behind the plant and its potential. However, as new products develop, and fresh ways of dosing have become available to patients, so too have the means of dosing surfaced. As a result, more and more practitioners have started prescribing cannabis- based concentrates.